ACT 36
SAT 1550 - didn’t submit
GPA unweighted 3.99 (top 10% from public school, no ranking at school)
SAT math 800
SAT US History 780
SAT French 730
AP classes 9 (5 for 4 APs, 5 APs are taking in senior year)
Math award 2nd State level
Captain in 3 school clubs
Founder of one start up company
Founder of non-profit organization
Golf varsity team (only made in local competition)
1st chair of cello in school orchestra, also president of orchestra
A lot of volunteering work at Christian church, also belong to church worship team, singing and play cello in the worship
Great essays ( He started to prepare essay in July)
Recommendation letters (he started to request from teachers before end of junior year)
I think the most important things are planing ahead for recommendation letters and essays, also having supportive parents.
Kids at this age are very fragile. They think going top college is their only goal. In my opinion, whatever college they are going is not going to make too much difference in the life later on, only maybe first year of first job. The most important is choosing major they like to study.
My Dad had been keeping tabs of the members in the UChicago FB page to get a feel for how many students UChicago is admitting every admission cycle since they don’t give out the numbers and he tells me there is a big swing this year compared to the last two years
For the 2017 ED round, there were around 321 members in the FB group right after the announcement (within a day). Last year that number jumped to 411.
This year the number is only 259 as of this morning.
Of course the FB member list isn’t a hard indicator but may directionally indicate changes from year to year and could indicate they admitted fewer ED students this round.
Maybe they are already adjusting their admit strategy to boost the number of Pell Grant admits to overcome the lower score they got on this front in the US News ranking this year compared to their peer schools?
Congratulations to all the admitted students and their parents. DS (Asian male) is EA deferred. We love this school but this hybrid EA/ED/EDII system is a little confusing and stress-inducing. Hope for the best in March!
i know this feeling, i got similar stats and was rejected ED outright, not even a deferral. i think they’re looking for a v specific set of students this year. best of luck anyway
EA at UChicago is not there to admit the strongest candidates that are likely to have other options and attend eslsewhere - that is what ED is for, to lock them in.
EA is to offer admission to hooked candidates they know will not apply ED, but they need to build the class composition they want.
Everyone else must use other door (ED1). Deferral is essentially a rejection (0.5% chance of being admitted RD), unless you kiss the ring (switch to ED2).
It’s not personal. It’s buisness.
This is, by any means, not the case of sour grapes. As I indicated upthread, we expected no other outcome. Son only applied EA since it could be done along with MIT and Caltech, both schools with a lot stronger average academic profile than UChicago.
Was wondering what people thought of my chances, here are my stats:
SAT: 1580 (superscore)
GPA: 4.0 (unweighted), 4.6 (weighted, took 17 APs)
ECs: NHS President, Georgia Governors Honors Program, Two Research Internships (UF and FSU), Golf Team Captain, Mathletes, Worship Band Lead Singer and Guitarist, Music and Drama
Did you guys just upload directly to your U Chicago account? Do you get that after you apply? This is my first app and I am not sure if I am to upload my video after I submit the common app and then will a UC account be sent to me? Thanks for any help!
@SurelyHuman at #303: can you ask your dad to track the additions daily, esp. once the ED2’s come out because that will help establish how many of those were admitted. Not a perfect gauge, but helpful nonetheless.
Son accepted ED. He’s very happy and he knows he’s very lucky. So many candidates with stupendous qualifications did not get in. The decisions seem largely random.
Accepted ED 1. Asian female, 34 ACT/1520 SAT/3.85 UW GPA/4.30 W GPA (super-rigorous courses). Few leadership + commitment heavy ECs, and essays were good, I think? I don’t know.